‘Hamilton’’s Lin-Manuel Miranda Contributed Music to the New Star Wars Cantina Band

As a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallonlast night, Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams revealed yet another tiny tidbit about the upcoming mega-blockbuster. Responding to the question “Do you have time to do anything else? Or see...?” from host Jimmy Fallon, Abrams explained that he recently saw the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, where he bumped into the show’s star and creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda joked that if Abrams needed any new music for the famous Star Wars cantina, he would gladly write it, little realizing that Abrams actually had a scene in his movie that was a bit of an homage to the classic cantina scene. So Abrams offered the challenge to Miranda, who accepted. Then Abrams and Miranda worked on the music together.

Who knows how big or how small a role this music plays in the final product of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. (I’m guessing pretty small.) Either way, it’s just cool that Abrams continues to bring in these great collaborators to contribute to Star Wars. There’s arguably no bigger or hotter musical talent out there right now than Lin-Manuel Miranda. And he’s worked on the new Star Wars.

And with that, the mystery box is now closed once again for the foreseeable future. Star Wars: The Force Awakens finally opens on December 18. Then we can start spending every waking hour talking about Star Wars: Episode VIII.